Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences

SIVS-WHO Collaborating Center Internship Programs

The World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Vaccine Research, Evaluation, and Training on Emerging Infectious Diseases actively collaborates with other international WHO Collaborating Centers (WHO CCs) and WHO headquarters by sponsoring internships for UTMB graduate and medical students to work on vaccine-related research projects:

UTMB-based Internships:

These are UTMB-based internships where teams of 2-3 students work together on a baseline analysis of an infectious disease.

They are jointly mentored by UTMB faculty in collaboration with scientists from WHO or another international WHO CC.

Kubra's project was entitled "Establishing an in vitro assay for tuberculin batch release" under the mentorships of PEI's
Prof. Dr. Veronika von Messling (former Head of Division of Veterinary
Medicine), and Dr. Michael Mühlebach (Head of Section of Immunological Medicinal Products for Veterinary Use). Brittany’s project was “Prevalence of extraneous agents in fertilized eggs used for human and veterinary vaccine production" under the supervision of Dr. von Messling.

In May 2018, NIBSC scientists, Drs. Silke Schepelmann and Mark Page (second and third from left, respectively) visited the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) as part of a cooperation agreement signed earlier this year. The meeting provided an opportunity for NIBSC and UTMB scientists to exchange knowledge and ideas and provide NIBSC scientists an opportunity to tour our facilities at UTMB.

A student exchange program also forms part of the agreement and will support projects such as the production of standards for Marburg and other emerging viruses.